Neon goby covered in white marks?

[Eel_lady]

Hi there! I came home after being away for two nights. I left with perfectly healthy fish and came back to my poor neon goby being covered in white lesion type marks? He seems irritated and keeps brushing against rock. Anyone know what’s wrong with him and how I can treat it please? I’m gutted I just want to make him better. My first thought was ich but I don’t want to treat my entire tank with the wrong medicine. Thank you!

 

[reef lover]

Cant treat the dt safely. Must set up a qt tank. It does look like ich to me but lets call.some experts.
@Humblefish
@Big G
@HotRocks
@pathot984

 

[LAReefer4Life]

I’m sorry to hear you’re dealing with this. From the pictures you posted it does confirm ich.

The only way to eradicate the parasite from your system is by disrupting its life cycle and removing all the fish from your display and placing them in a hospital tank with copper medication. The display tank needs to remain fallow for minimum of 76 days to fully eradicate.

Did you add anything recently to your tank?

 

[juniorgomez708]

Hi, I have the same thing going on with my yellow neon gobies. How long should I have them in the hospital tank with copper and would you recommend fw dip?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi, I have the same thing going on with my yellow neon gobies. How long should I have them in the hospital tank with copper and would you recommend fw dip?

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Assuming your gobies have the same issue, I would pass on the FW dip, and just get them into a treatment tank with a full dose of copper right away. I use Coppersafe. You should also have a good copper test kit (the Hanna checker is best, the API kit is the worst). I run copper for 30 days, and then, you'll need to leave your DT empty of all fish for a period of time ranging from 45 to 76 days, depending on temperature:

45 Day Fallow periods

I've been doing some research into the "76 day fallow period". I never heard of that prior to coming to Reef2Reef this past summer. I had always used 32 days as the maximum time for a tomont to remain viable under tropical conditions, and then I would round up to 45 days to help ensure that...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi there! I came home after being away for two nights. I left with perfectly healthy fish and came back to my poor neon goby being covered in white lesion type marks? He seems irritated and keeps brushing against rock. Anyone know what’s wrong with him and how I can treat it please? I’m gutted I just want to make him better. My first thought was ich but I don’t want to treat my entire tank with the wrong medicine. Thank you!

The photo isn't super-clear (I know, tiny gobies are tough to photograph!). However, seeing spots on the clear portion of the fins does tend to confirm marine ich. What other fish are in the tank? It is highly unlikely that you will be able to successfully treat this in your display tank. Have you added any fish or invertebrates recently?

Jay

 

[juniorgomez708]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Assuming your gobies have the same issue, I would pass on the FW dip, and just get them into a treatment tank with a full dose of copper right away. I use Coppersafe. You should also have a good copper test kit (the Hanna checker is best, the API kit is the worst). I run copper for 30 days, and then, you'll need to leave your DT empty of all fish for a period of time ranging from 45 to 76 days, depending on temperature:

45 Day Fallow periods

I've been doing some research into the "76 day fallow period". I never heard of that prior to coming to Reef2Reef this past summer. I had always used 32 days as the maximum time for a tomont to remain viable under tropical conditions, and then I would round up to 45 days to help ensure that...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

I started doing the coppersafe treatment to the few fish I have & I noticed that my goby no longer has the white spots. I’m hoping it detached and dies soon. But thank you!

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I started doing the coppersafe treatment to the few fish I have & I noticed that my goby no longer has the white spots. I’m hoping it detached and dies soon. But thank you!

Just beware that when ich starts up, the parasites are all in sync and may drop off the fish at the same time to reproduce and then return in greater numbers. The copper kills the ich parasite at just this stage.
Jay